Chapter 17: Chapter 14 – First Lessons, Part 2

“So could you say you have an understanding of the individual letters and how to write them now?”

After telling me what each letter stands for, Karine gave me a pen and paper, telling me to write down each letter until I could get them close to perfect. It took me a couple of tries, but it looks like she’s happy with the results. Success!

Truthfully, I still have trouble believing it. I thought this’d be a bit more difficult, what with having to learn an entirely new alphabet, but at least this first step towards learning the written language has been quite simple. How was I supposed to know their alphabet mimics ours or at least something approximating that of ours? I mean, as far as I know, the alphabet hadn’t changed much in a long while.

“Yes, I would say so. Finding out they’re essentially the same alphabet we use just with a different look helped a lot.”

“No doubt.” Karine moves a book from a pile of books she had been keeping to her side opposite from me in front of me. “Next step is some light reading. While you may know the letters, you don’t know how to use them yet.”

Light reading? That looks like a thousand-page book, at least!

“Let’s start with something simple. Let’s read the title of this book.”

I look at the title on the cover of the book. I can recognize the letters but using them to understand words is an entirely different beast. Thankfully I have a fairly good grasp of the spoken language already, so while the spoken form is likely to differ from the written form, it still should help. At least a bit.

“Um… ‘The… Military History…’”

“Yes, please continue.”

“’… Of the Kingdom of F…”

“You’re doing really well, continue.”

Fort… Fortalie?’”

“Yes. ‘The Military History of the Kingdom of Fortalie.’ As I said, light reading.” A mischievous smile. “It’s an embellished piece of historical fiction with some actual history sprinkled throughout. They do like to put a lot of emphasis on the glories of the military here.”

She taps the book with contempt.

Quite the thing to say. But I guess that means the name of the country we’re in is Fortalie? Never heard of that. Not that I’m really counting the proof that this isn’t some historical version of home anymore.

“Is it okay for you to say that?”

“To you? You’re an unaffiliated outworlder, I don’t see why not. To the people on the street? Could land me in trouble if the wrong person hears it.”

She sighs.

“I want you to open the book on page 479.”

“You never taught me numbers.”

“You can figure them out yourself. It shouldn’t be too hard, just look at the first ten or so pages. There’s a marking on each page at the bottom.”

Well, of course. I just thought she’d teach me them rather than, you know, having me teach myself. Not that I ever asked to be taught their numbers in the first place.

I turn the pages until the markings she mentioned begin.

Okay. So that’s a one.

That’s a two.

That’s a three.

I continue like this until I have counted to ten. I check the next few pages after that and lo and behold, they begin repeating the same numbers in a very familiar pattern. The exact written symbols may be different, but I can tell what’s going on.

Page eleven, twelve, thirteen etcetera. I see what she meant. It seems it’s highly likely even their numerals have been affected by meddling outworlders. Makes my life easier, but I doubt having outsiders change the basics of nearly everything would be all that great.

Based on my newly acquired knowledge, I guesstimate what page 479 is, turning the page until I reach it.

I give Karine an anticipating look, and she checks the page number.

“As expected. That’s the correct page.”

I feel strangely accomplished, even though this is stuff that literal children know how to do. And the only reason I’m able to learn this fast is the tech in my head.

“Okay, now read this.”

She points at a paragraph that seems… Rather difficult to read.

I begin my first attempt to read it. Unlike with the title where she didn’t seem to be bothered by my slightly botched pronunciation of the words, Karine patiently corrects my mistakes as I proceed through the entire paragraph.

Apparently, if this paragraph is to be believed, in the year 954 of the Old Imperial Calendar, the Kingdom of Fortalie forced the monsters and beastly men out from its rightful southern territories, pushing them into ‘the wastelands from whence they came’. Whoever wrote it used flowery language about the forces of the kingdom, while reviling the opponents as much as they could.

It's an interesting combination of making the enemy seem both weak and strong at the same time, while also making your side seem both strong and heroically outnumbered until the reinforcements arrived and brought an end to the menace. I mean, it’s propaganda 101 from school history, but seeing it displayed so blatantly is still really interesting.

If Karine is to be believed, this war did take place. Just that the Fortalian forces committed untold atrocities on the “beastly men” of the south, excusing them all based on the fact that they aren’t human and that they were encroaching on human lands. In truth, it was the people of the kingdom who were encroaching on the lands of the “beastly men” instead.

“You know, you didn’t really say it yet. What are these ‘beastly men’?”

“Oh. They are the beastfolk. They range from people who are only separated from us by the presence of animal ears and maybe a tail, to nearly fully beastly humanoids. If you wanted to, you could distinguish them by calling the former group ‘demi-humans,’ I guess.”

She looks at her books, pulling one in particular out from the bunch.

“I might as well show you an artist’s rendition of them.”

She places the book on top of the earlier one, opens it and starts to quickly turn pages until she seems satisfied.

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“Take a look.”

I look at the drawings.

Just like she said, some of them depict humans with animal ears and tails. Others are more like nightmare fuel, like animals walking on two feet.

“So are these often grouped together?”

“Depends,” Karine responds, sighing.

“On what, exactly?”

“On the country. On the times. Fortalie as it is right now for instance is very, shall we say, anti-beastfolk. Heavy emphasis on purity.”

“Um. Could that make things difficult for me and Avilia?”

“Why?”

“Well, we were called elves just yesterday.”

Karine looks surprised and laughs.

“Elves? Who cares about elves in this day and age?”

I just stare at her, feeling a bit confused. That wasn’t quite the reaction I was expecting.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Karine continues, “I mean, you two do resemble elves from the old books and sure, it’s interesting. But they never really had much of a presence in the kingdom. You’d be more of a scholarly interest than a speciesist one.”

She pauses for a moment to glance at the drawings.

 “Anyway. We should continue. Read this paragraph.”

It's a short summary about the differences between the types of beastfolk, the demi-humans and the truly bestial folk. It seems that the demi-humans are, in good times at least, considered to be on the level of humans. Often viewed with some suspicion, but capable of the same level of intelligence.

The more bestial peoples, however, have always been considered a menace. Their strange magics and nigh inability to speak human language makes them a scary other to rally against. Reading between the lines, it does feel like the beastfolk are maligned mostly for their difference.

This makes me wonder, though.

“If there’s this level of speciesism, what about racism? You know, among humans?”

Karine frowns.

“It’s of course a thing as well. But migrating peoples rarely are great enough a threat to go to literal war against.”

And with that, we continue the lesson. She does the same thing where she places a new book in front of me and then makes me read a paragraph or two from each a few times more. I must say I feel a lot more confident reading the language already thanks to this.

Somehow, the language feels vaguely familiar. I’m not sure why exactly, but it does. As if it’s something I’ve seen before. Sadly, it isn’t close enough a match for my software to pick up on it.

After the reading session is done and Karine seems content with my reading ability, she takes away the books and we switch to writing sentences. She dictates a sentence, and I write it down to the best of my ability with her help.

At first, I find it a little bit difficult to write everything correctly, but as the lesson continues and Karine continues to dictate more complex sentences, my writing becomes more confident. This is all thanks to the technology stuck into my head, the software repeating the lessons and permutations it generated from them, placing all this information straight into my brain. Just as it did when I merely read the text.

It does feel like I’m cheating a bit, but it’s better to cheat than to waste potentially weeks on this. Weeks I can’t really afford.

“Okay,” Karine says with a sigh, “I think you’ve reached high enough proficiency in writing now.”

“What’s next?”

“Next, we’ll start with basic magic. Don’t worry, I already made something just for you that should, at least in theory, allow you to cast spells through your hands.”

“Eh? I thought you needed to alter my arms for that?”

A knock on the door.

“Great, just on time!”

The door opens. It’s Flore, carrying something that looks like sleeves encrusted with crystals.

“Here are the things you asked me to bring, Karine.”

Wait. When did she ask her to bring anything here? Before I even got here? Didn’t she intend to keep me doing this lesson all day originally? Maybe not, then? Or could it be telepathy?

Maybe I’m overthinking it?

“Good. Just give them to Irene here.”

With a smile on her face, Flore carefully presents the sleeves to me, nods at Karine and leaves the room.

“You will be using those temporarily until I’m sure I can do the alterations to your arms without causing any undue damage. They won’t be as easy to use, nor are they really all that comfortable, but they should work. In theory.”

“Works for me.”

“Okay, then! Time for the next lesson.”